Jaffna commander takes punitive steps

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 November 1997, 23:59 GMT]Jaffna town commander Brigadier. Susantha Mendis called all Grama Sevakas (village officers) in the Jaffna town and Nallur Divisional Secretary (D.S, formerly AGA) divisions for a meeting at the 51-2 Brigade HQ at Gnanam's Hotel at 9.30 a.m. this morning.

He instructed the officers that they should not issue food stamps to people with a monthly income above 1500 rupees.

The Grama Sevakas who went for the meeting said they were perturbed by the development as this would put a large number of the poor in Jaffna town and Nallur in dire straits, and because the government has only stipulated an income ceiling of 1800 rupees to qualify for the receipt of poor relief- food stamps.

The SLA commander also instructed the Grama Sevakas that they should not sign travel permits to Colombo for Jaffna civilians for clearance by the army except in the case of weddings, funerals and medical treatment.

He told them that as they sign Colombo travel forms for army screening indiscriminately, a massive backlog of paper work has accumulated, creating administrative problems for the SLA in Jaffna.